From History of Walworth County Wisconsin, Vol. 1, by Albert Clayton Beckwith, 
publ. 1912 - Pages 742 - 743
 
SMITH BAKER MORRISON.  Fealty to facts in the analyzation of the character of 
a citizen of the type of Smith Baker MORRISON, of Elkhorn, Walworth county, is 
all that is required to make a biographical sketch interesting to those who 
have at heart the good name of the community, because it is the honorable 
reputation of the man of standing and affairs, more than any other 
consideration, that gives character and stability to the body politic and 
makes the true glory of a city or state revered at home and respected in other 
and distant localities.  In the broad light which things of good report ever 
invite, the name and character of Mr. MORRISON stand revealed and secure and, 
though of modest demeanor, with no ambition to distinguish himself in public 
position or as a leader of men, his career has been singly honorable and it 
may be studied with profit by the youth entering upon his life work.  He is 
regarded as one of the most expert abstractors this county has ever produced, 
in fact, his life record shows that he has always advocated doing right 
whatever was worth doing at all.
 
Mr. MORRISON was born at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, on April 11, 1858.  He was 
the son of Joseph F. and Mary M. (McPHERSON) MORRISON.  The latter was born in 
Oneida county, New York, and she came to Fort Atkinson, this state, with her 
parents, John McPHERSON and wife, when young in years.  Her father traded a 
forty-acre farm in Oneida county, New York, for one thousand acres near Fort 
Atkinson, Wisconsin.  His friends in New York thought he was badly worsted in 
the deal, but when his Wisconsin land had been developed it was very valuable 
and is today worth a very large sum.
 
Joseph F. MORRISON came west with his parents from Colerain, Massachusetts, 
when he was a boy, locating at Fort Atkinson in the early days, his father 
having entered land from the government in that vicinity.
 
Smith B. MORRISON, of this sketch, grew upon the home farm, which being new 
land, furnished plenty of work for him, when he became of proper age, and all 
the rest of the family, for developing a farm from the wild woods of the 
Badger state was not a task of weaklings.  He grew to maturity at Fort 
Atkinson and there he received his education, graduating from the high school 
at Fort Atkinson.  He began life for himself by teaching school, in which he 
engaged in various parts of the county from the age of seventeen to twenty-
three, and he was making rapid progress as an able educator when he abandoned 
the school room and purchased his father's farm, which he operated 
successfully for twelve years, keeping it well improved and well cultivated.  
Then he came to Walworth county and resumed teaching, having charge of the 
school at Darien for a year.  He then spent a year in a hardware store in 
Elkhorn.
 
Observing a good field for the abstract business in this county, Mr. MORRISON 
purchased a set of books in 1898 at Elkhorn and this he has continued to the 
present time, having met with great success and building up a very wide 
patronage.  He succeeded Samuel BREESE, Jr., in this business.  To this he has 
added insurance and has a large business in this line also.  He is known for 
his painstaking care, accuracy, untiring perseverance and his obliging, genial 
nature, which renders him popular with the masses.
 
Mr. MORRISON was married on December 18, 1879, to Alice F. FLACK, daughter of 
G. FLACK and wife.  To this union two daughters have been born, namely: Ethel, 
wife of Oscar L. HEINZE, lives in Milwaukee, and has one daughter Norma Jean; 
Mabel is at home with her parents, and is now attending Stout Institute of 
Domestic Science at Menominee.
 
Mr. and Mrs. MORRISON belong to the Congregational church.  Fraternally, he is 
a member of the Masonic order and his wife belongs to the Order of the Eastern 
Star.

Submitted By:  Carol
(carolann612@charter.net)